Being A Tamer
by Lady Iapetus Roving Wanderer
Summary: An innocent wish changes Lee Jaarin's life after she becomes jealous of Jenrya and Shiuchon.
1. You Just Might Get It

**Legal Disclaimer:** I do not own Digimon Tamers or any characters associated with it. Digimon is the property of Toei Entertainment and Sensations Animation. This fic is purely for entertainment purposes.  
**Series Title:** Being a Tamer   
**Chapter Title:** You Just Might Get It  
**Chapter:** 1 of 4  
**Focus:** Lee Jaarin, Gazimon  
**Rated:** PG   
**Season/Timeline:** Digimon Tamers, eight months after the defeat of D-Reaper and two months after the fight with Locomon/Parismon in the sixth movie.  
**Summary:** An innocent wish changes Lee Jaarin's life after she becomes jealous of Jenrya and Shiuchon.  
**Additional Notes:** After noticing that Jenrya and Jaarin (the eldest Lee daughter) seemed pretty close in age, I have decided to make them twins; however, this could be considered a Tamers AU as canonically Jaarin is 15 years old. The Wild Bunch members called "Lilian" and "Rai" in this fic are better known as "Daisy" and "Curly." All other rules of my fanon, including Lopmon being female, apply here.

Lee Jaarin _hated_ being a twin.

Actually, that was an untruth. She didn't hate Jenrya. She could never imagine herself even disliking him or being angry at him for longer than a few hours at the most. Sure they had disagreements and exchanged the occassional harsh words like any other siblings did, but when it came right down to it neither Jaarin nor Jenrya could imagine life without the other.

Jealousy, however, was another story entirely.

For as long as she could remember there had been some measure of competition between Jenrya and herself. Part of it came from the fact that Jaarin was five minutes older than Jenrya, a fact she liked to flaunt from time to time. But age difference or not, one always had to be a _little_ bit better than the other, or have something that the other didn't. For instance, Jaarin got violin lessons and got to attend Taiyou Academy, a private school, instead of the the public elementary school that Jenrya and his friends attended, while Jenrya had his self-built computer system and his Tai Chi lessons. Their parents had also learned long ago not to get them identical gifts, either. So when their father went on a business trip to America, Jaarin got a basketball jersey and Jenrya got a Digimon video game.

Oh, and Terriermon. He also had Terriermon.

Jaarin had known about Terriermon almost from the first day that he had realised in Jenrya's bedroom. She had been home from school with a mild case of the flu, and had gone into her brother's bedroom to use his computer when she found the little guy at said computer, fiddling with the mouse. He'd tried to pretend that he was a stuffed animal, but that ruse only worked until Jaarin told him she knew he wasn't a toy. Terriermon spent the rest of the school day waiting for Jenrya to return by telling Jaarin about the Digital World and getting her to explain to him how the computer worked. Once Jenrya came home from school Jaarin made him explain the whole thing, and he in turn swore her to secrecy about Terriermon. After that Jenrya began taking Terriermon to school with him.

For a while Jaarin kept her promise, and told no one else in her family that the stuffed rabbit her twin had taken to carrying around was actually a living, breathing intelligent creature from a different dimension. She listened as Jenrya told her of his experiences as a Digimon Tamer, from his meeting Matsuda Takato and Makino Ruki to the first time Terriermon evolved to Galgomon. She also helped keep a protective eye on Terriermon whenever Jenrya couldn't be with him (although she did get a little enjoyment out of Shiuchon's dress-up game, as well as a few blackmail photos). But as time wore on Jaarin heard more and more about her brother's exploits as a Tamer, and saw the deepening bond between boy and Digimon.

And it made her jealous. Jealous that someone else had a bond with her brother that was just as deep and meaningful as the one she shared with him. Jealous that she didn't have a partner like Terriermon, and that she couldn't be out protecting Shinjuku from Wild Ones instead of hearing about it second-hand from Jenrya. It didn't particularly help when her brother and their younger sister came back from the Digital World and she found out that Shiuchon was now a Tamer, partnered to a Digimon that was nearly twin to Jenrya's partner. It made no sense; _she_ was Jenrya's twin, so shouldn't she be partnered to the Digimon that was Terriermon's twin? Why would such a serious Digimon be partnered to such an innocent, carefree little girl? Eventually Jaarin saw the sense in it. Shiuchon and Lopmon balanced each other perfectly and if she thought about it, it was almost a role-reversal of Jenrya and Terriermon's partnership.

The digimon continued to be a separating point for Jenrya and Jaarin. All through the debacle with the D-Reaper Jaarin had wished that she was going into battle alongside her brother and sister, when the extent of her help went to reassuring Shiuchon as they watched Antiramon head off to join her teammates in battle. Aside from that she was just part of the background, another bystander who just happened to be the sister of two of the Tamers and the daughter of one of the members of the Wild Bunch.

After it was all over and the Digimon had returned to the Digital World, Jaarin prayed that their lives would return to normal. Things were a little tense around the Lee household for a while thereafter, especially between Jenrya and their father. He understood why their father had done what he had, and that he hadn't realized what affects the Shaggai program would have on the Digimon until it was too late. Forgiveness took just a little bit longer. Then there was Shiuchon, who could be heard in the middle of the night sobbing for Lopmon and Terriermon. And it didn't seem like anything could be done about the Digimon, at least not until Takato had stumbled across the open portal in the park about a month later.

It hadn't taken very long for all of the Tamers to be reunited with their Digimon. All of the Tamers and their families gathered at the site to welcome them back; even the twins Ai and Mako and their parents were there. Guilmon had been the first one out, followed by Culumon, Impmon and the rest of them. What followed was a melee of pure emotion; Guilmon had Takato pinned on the ground on his back licking his face exuberantly while Culumon flew excited loops around Juri and her family and Kenta held Marine Angemon and sobbed. Ai and Mako were clinging to both sides of Impmon, and the goblin Digimon was trying not to look as if he was enjoying it. As she watched her brother and sister reunite with their partners, Jaarin once again felt that twinge of jealousy in her heart, and wished that she had a Digimon partner.

No one had warned her it wasn't wise to make such a wish when there were Digi-Gnomes present.

It had been about nearly eight months since that day, two and a half months since the battle with Locomon and Parismon, and life for the Lee family had finally settled down. On this particular day Jaarin was at home with her brother and little sister, their parents off at work and running errands respectively while Rinchei was out with friends. Jenrya was in his room doing something or other with his computer while Shiuchon played with Terriermon and Lopmon. Jaarin decided to take advantage of the rare quiet and get some reading done; she'd been wanting to get this novel finished for a long time. But she'd gotten no further than halfway through a chapter when the phone rang. She overheard Jenrya answer it.

"Hello, Lee residence," he said into the receiver. There was a pause, followed by, "Hey, Dad, what's up? _Really_? That's fantastic! Sure we'll come; I know I don't want to miss this. Yeah. Yeah, we'll see you in a bit. Okay, bye." Jaarin heard him hang up, and then almost immediately yell, "Shiuchon!"

"What did Dad want, Jen?" Jaarin asked as Shiuchon came out of her room, followed by Terriermon and Lopmon. "I thought he was at work."

Jenrya nodded. "He is. He and the rest of the Wild Bunch have been working with Hypnos trying to find a way to extract the data of an absorbed Digimon out of another Digimon's body, to see if it's possible to bring Leomon back. They've done a few experiments on Guilmon and Renamon, and now Dad thinks they're ready to try it on Impmon."

"You mean Leomon is going to come back?" Shiuchon asked hopefully.

"That's what we're hoping," answered her brother. "Anyway, the Tamers all want to be there for this, so Shiuchon and I will be going out for a little while."

"Oh. Okay." Jaarin returned her attention to her book, hoping she hadn't sounded as disappointed as she felt. Jenrya, however, picked up on that.

"Hey, you wanna come with us?" he asked. "It's better than sitting around here alone." Jaarin looked up at him, eyes wide in genuine surprise.

"Sure; lemme get my shoes on," she answered quickly, kicking off her slippers.

"So, uh, just how long is dis supposed ta take?" Impmon asked, glancing at his surroundings with clear discomfort. No one blamed him for being uncomfortable, either; he was lying on a metal table under some sort of machine that, to the Tamers, looked like the child of a mating between an MRI machine and a movie projector. He had been strapped to the table to keep him from moving, and sensor wires were taped all over his body. Impmon turned his head and caught the fearful expressions on his Tamers' faces, and shot them a thumbs-up and what he hoped was a reassuring smile.

"Hopefully not very long," answered Janyuu as he looked over some computer readings with Shibumi. "The longest it took was about eight minutes, when we extracted the Fuugamon's data from Renamon." Impmon sighed and tried to relax as much as his anxiety would allow.

Renamon placed a hand on Ai's shoulder, causing both of the youngest Tamers to look up at the tall, vulpine Digimon. "Do not worry," she assured them. "I have undergone this procedure myself, and it is painless. Impmon will not be hurt." Ai and Mako relaxed at this bit of information, while Ruki shot her partner a Look. She had been there when Fuugamon's data had been removed from her partner and recompiled in the controlled Digital Field, and could tell from the expressions on Renamon's face that it wasn't exactly a painless experience.

Jaarin looked at her own twin. "Explain this to me again," she requested quietly. "Just how is this supposed to work?"

"Well you see," Jenrya explained "The machine Impmon is lying under right now is set up similarly to the one that Dad used to load the Shaggai program into Terriermon. Only instead of loading data, it will scan Impmon and extract all data that it reads as foreign, or not belonging to Impmon. Then that data will be extracted and shunted to that apparatus over there" he pointed to the cubicle-like object nearby "and recompiled in a controlled digital field into the Digimon that it used to be."

Dr. Rob McCoy stepped out from behind the "D-Box," the apparatus that would contain the digital field, having just finished making some adjustments on it. "We're all set. Is the subject ready?"

This earned the good doctor a frown from the younger twins. "His name is Impmon," Mako said.

"Right; I'm sorry," 'Dolphin' amended. "Is Impmon ready?"

"Yeah, I'm fine," Impmon responded. "Let's get dis over wit!"

The scientists chuckled. "Well, if you insist," Janyuu agreed. He looked over at Lilian and Rai, and nodded at them.

The Indian woman typed a few commands into her computer. "Starting scanning sequence...now."

The machine whirred to life. A stripe of bright white light panned over Impmon as the scanning head read his data. When it was finished it moved back into place. "Scanning complete," Rai announced. "Beginning extraction of foreign data...now." The scanning head passed over Impmon once again, only at a slower pace and casting a bluish-green light as it removed all the data that the computer had read as not belonging to Impmon. The goblin-like Digimon grimaced as this was done; he didn't hurt like he had after going several rounds with Indaramon and then with the D-Reaper, but the procedure wasn't exactly painless either.

As soon as this was finished, Lilian went to work. "Foreign data extracted safely, at 100. Beginning compliation and reformatting sequence...now." With a few taps on the keys, the data that had been taken from Impmon was sent to the D-Box. The Tamers, Wild Bunch and Jaarin watched as a digital field formed inside of it and something began to form from the data that was being loaded inside. Jaarin glanced over at Juri and noticed that the girl was holding onto her D-Arc tightly, her whole body tense with anticipation.

Finally the computer beeped and Lilian announced, "Compilation and reformatting sequence complete. Kill the digital field." Dr. McCoy nodded and turned off the D-Box. The Tamers waited for the digital fog to dissipate so that they could get a good look at their old friend.

But when the fog cleared, the Digimon that it revealed was _not_ Leomon.

"Makuramon?" Jenrya exclaimed in surprise. The Tamers, except for Ai and Mako, stepped back a couple steps as the Deva exited the D-Box. "What is he doing here? Dad, I thought you were trying to recover _Leomon's_ data!"

"We were!" Janyuu responded, looking over Rai's shoulder as she ran through the programs trying to figure out what had gone wrong.

Meanwhile the Tamers were preparing for a confrontation with the monkey Deva. Jenrya still burned with anger that he had tried to kidnap his little sister as a replacement for Culumon while Shiuchon feared him for the same reason. The others still bore ill will for the fact that Makuramon had kidnapped Culumon in the first place, and Juri was understandably upset that this Digimon was not her partner. Makuramon growled at coming face to face with the humans he and his master Zhuiqaomon so despised, and his anger only deepend when he laid eyes on the traitor Lopmon. In his opinion Zhuiqaomon should have killed her outright when she became the partner of that little girl instead of stripping Antiramon of her powers. _Well,_ he thought _no reason why I can't make up for his mistake._ So he summoned a Treasure Ball and took aim at Lopmon and Shiuchon.

"Hey!" Suddenly someone had come between him and his target. It was a young human girl with short-cut, reddish-brown hair, her face filled with anger. She stood between them, arms spread out to block him from attacking.

"Jaarin, what are you doing?" asked Ruki. It had taken all of them by surprise when Jenrya and Shiuchon's sister had rushed forward and used herself as a shield between Shiuchon and the monkey Deva.

Jaarin ignored her. "Hey!" she said again to Makuramon. "I don't know who you think you are pal, but you aren't going to lay one finger on my little sister, you hear me? So you'd better just put that ball back where it came from!"

Makuramon fumed. How dare this human presume to stop him from attacking? From what he could tell, she wasn't even a Tamer! She had no Digimon to protect her. "Foolish girl!" Makuramon snapped. "You think you can stop me? You don't even have a Digimon to protect you! I could take you out right now if I wanted to! In fact, I think I'll do just that." He drew back his throwing arm, and the silver orb in his hand began to glow. Jenrya, Lopmon and Takato froze, remembering the attack that Makuramon had used to try to finish Antiramon off when they had battled against each other.

"Jaarin, look out!" Jenrya cried.

"Treasure--!"

Suddenly a bolt of blue lightening shot out of the D-Box, striking the ball in Makuramon's hand and shattering it. All heads swiveled in the direction of the box, which held another digital field.

The Wild Bunch was aghast. "How did that happen?" Dr. McCoy asked. "I thought I turned that thing off."

Takato shrugged. "The digital fields never needed a controlled environment to form before."

Nervously they waited for another Digimon to emerge, a Wild One or a possible ally for Makuramon. Instead, all that came out was a voice. "Makuramon, leave the humans alone. The quarrel between them and your master is no more."

The monkey Deva seethed. "Stay out of this, Qinglongmon!" he snapped back. "Zhuiqaomon-sama has nothing to do with this; it's just between me and those humans!"

"Are you aware, Makuramon, that if it had not been for the efforts of the humans you so hate, you wouldn't even be standing there right now?" This statement cause Makuramon to blink in surprise. But before he could answer Qinglongmon continued, "I will not put up with any of your arguments any longer. Makuramon, I hereby strip you of your powers and your level as a Deva, and return you to your Child form. Furthermore, you shall be banished from the Digital World unless I decide otherwise." A stream of blue light shot out of the digital field and engulfed Makuramon. The monkey Deva didn't have time to scream; his breath just caught in his throat as he felt his power taken from him. _Was this how Antiramon felt when Zhuiqaomon-sama took her power away?_ he asked himself.

Everyone else in the room was shielding their eyes from the intensity of the light. Then, just as suddenly as it had come it disappeared. The occupants of the room turned their gazes to the spot where Makuramon had been standing. In his place, huddled on the floor in a shaking heap, was a scruffy-looking rabbit-like Digimon. A look in the empty D-Box told them that Qinglongmon had disappeared, his work done. Jenrya pulled out his D-Arc to analyze the Digimon before them. "Gazimon, a Virus-type Child-level Digimon. Primary attack is Paralyze Breath."

The tense atmosphere in the room seemed to dissipate as quickly as digital fog as the group tried to figure out what happened and Ruki explained a few vital things to Jaarin, like just who Qinglongmon was. Juri sank into a chair, holding and staring at her D-Arc while Culumon and Takato hovered by her protectively. "Leomon..." she whimpered.

"I don't get it, Dad," Jenrya said as he joined the Wild Bunch in looking over the schematics and readouts. "How could Makuramon have been brought back instead of Leomon?"

"Maybe," commented Shibumi "it was the way we went about it. When we tested the extractor on Guilmon and Renamon, we weren't looking for a specific Digimon's data. We just searched for foreign data, extracted it and reformatted the Digimon."

"Of course!" chimed in Dr. McCoy. "We didn't specify any parameters for the computer to search for! But how do we get it to differentiate between Leomon's data, Impmon's data and the data of another Digimon that Impmon absorbed?"

Jenrya looked over his shoulder at Juri. "Maybe if you copied and downloaded the information from Juri's D-Arc, Dad. It's got at least part of Leomon's data inside of it; it might help."

Janyuu looked at his son. "You may be onto something, Jen. We'll try that." He started over to Juri, but was stopped by Impmon. The goblin 'mon had unstrapped himself and was sitting up, and had pulled off nearly all of the wire sensors.

"Hold on dere, Pal," he said. "Whaddabout me ovah here? Dat data extraction ting's not exactly da most pleasant experience in da woild, and dere's no way in all da levels of da Digiwoild dat I'm gonna go through it two times in a row!" He stopped a minute to catch his breath. "We'll try it...in a couple-a days. When I'm feelin' up ta it. Believe me, I wanna get da big guy back as much as you all do."

The elder Lee nodded. "You're right," he admitted. "You go home with your Tamers, take the time to recover. We'll use the time to go over the readouts from this latest use of the data extractor." The Tamers turned to leave, Takato placing one arm around Juri's shoulders and reassuring her that they'd try again very soon.

"Hey, wait," Jaarin's voice made them pause. "What about him?" She was looking at Gazimon, who hadn't moved from his spot on the floor this entire time. "We can't just leave him there."

"And why not?" asked her brother. "You don't know what he's like, Jaarin; you didn't see some of the stuff he pulled. Believe me, we'd be a lot better off if Qinglongmon had just destroyed him instead of stripping him of his powers." Jaarin winced at the harsh tone her brother's voice held; she didn't think it was possible for him to hold a grudge against anyone, even for this long. Gazimon, overhearing what Jenrya had said, marveled at how Jenrya's opinion matched the one he had about Lopmon. Before she had time to think it over, Jaarin changed direction and strode over to where Gazimon was. "Jaarin, what are you doing?"

"What does it look like?" Jaarin nearly snapped back at her twin. "Someone's got to show him that not all humans are bad, and you aren't exactly the perfect candidate for that right now." That said, she squatted down in front of the scruffy-looking rabbit. "Hey there. You all right?"

Gazimon looked, surprised to see that the girl who had been glaring at him in anger several minutes before was now looking at him in kindness. "Why should you care? I'm the one who tried to kill your sister and her partner, remember?"

From where he was standing by his Tamers Impmon shrugged and commented, "Eh, we all make mistakes." He smiled a bit as Ai gave him a gentle hug.

Jaarin nodded in agreement. "Impmon's right; you were angry and you weren't thinking straight. Why don't you come with us, and we'll try to think of something to do to help you?"

"Hmmph," Gazimon snorted. "The only way you humans could help me is to give me a one-way ticket back to the Digiworld. There's no way I'm going to stick around here." Almost as if it was responding to what Gazimon had said, a bright orb of light appeared in the air between him and Jaarin. Instinctively the girl reached out and cupped it in her hands. The light faded away to reveal a D-Arc, one with a grayish-silver strap and edging.

Jaarin was now officially a Digimon Tamer, with Gazimon as her partner.

**To Be Continued**


	2. Period of Adjustment

**Legal Disclaimer:** I do not own Digimon Tamers or any characters associated with it. Digimon is the property of Toei Entertainment and Sensations Animation. This fic is purely for entertainment purposes.  
**Series Title:** Being a Tamer  
**Chapter Title:** Period of Adjustment  
**Chapter:** 2 of 4  
**Focus:** Lee Jaarin, Gazimon  
**Rated:** PG  
**Season/Timeline:** Digimon Tamers, eight months after the defeat of D-Reaper and two months after the fight with Locomon/Parismon in the sixth movie.  
**Summary:** An innocent wish changes Lee Jaarin's life after she becomes jealous of Jenrya and Shiuchon.  
**Additional Notes:** After noticing that Jenrya and Jaarin (the eldest Lee daughter) seemed pretty close in age, I have decided to make them twins; however, this could be considered a Tamers AU as canonically Jaarin is 15 years old. For those who might still be unsure, "Mayumi" is Mrs. Lee's first name (canon, not something I up and gave her).

"This can't be happening," Jenrya muttered to himself as he walked down the sidewalk, Terriermon held in his arms. Shiuchon and Lopmon were a pace and a half behind him, and behind them were Jaarin and her new partner Gazimon. Their father was still at the Hypnos building taking care of some things unrelated to the data extraction experiment. "This just cannot be happening."

Terriermon tilted his head back so that he was looking his partner in the face. "Jen, moumantai," he told him. "Maybe it won't be that bad."

Jenrya looked down at his partner with an incredulous expression on his face. "'Won't be that bad?'" he echoed. "Terriermon, we're talking about Makuramon, the guy who tried to kidnap my little sister and kill Lopmon because she protected her! And now he's going to be living in our house! What if he tries something?" His face flashed with anger, and he shifted his gaze back forward so that he could watch where he was going.

Terriermon looked back to the front too. "Okay, don't moumantai," he said.

Back behind Jenrya and Terriermon, Shiuchon and Lopmon were walking side by side as the size difference between them made carrying her partner for long distances a little difficult for the youngest Lee daughter. As they walked, Shiuchon noticed that Lopmon kept glancing behind them, at Jaarin and Gazimon. She'd look back to the front every time Shiuchon caught her doing it, but once the little girl's attention was elsewhere, Lopmon would look back at the newest Tamer and her partner. Finally curiosity got the better of Shiuchon and she asked, "Lopmon? Is something wrong?"

Lopmon looked up at her partner in surprise. "Huh? Um, no, no. Nothing's wrong, Shiuchon-chan. I'm fine."

"It's okay; you can tell me," Shiuchon pressed. "It's probably having Gazimon around, isn't it? I'll bet it's weird having a former teammate suddenly back in your life all of a sudden."

"Yes, something like that," Lopmon answered. Inwardly she shivered. Shiuchon's explanation hadn't been the _whole_ truth, but it was enough to satisfy her and hopefully Lopmon's Tamer wouldn't ask any more about it.

At the back of the group were Jaarin and her new partner. Jaarin had never been more excited as she had been when her silver and white D-Arc had appeared in her hands, marking her as Gazimon's Tamer. Finally she could be a real Tamer like Jenrya and like Shiuchon. But her excitement faded as the former Deva made it perfectly clear to everyone within earshot that he didn't want a partner. The vocal protests went on for the length of time it took them to get out of the building. By the time the Lee siblings had begun their trek back to their apartment, Gazimon had sunken into a silent funk. He rested in Jaarin's arms, his own arms crossed across his chest and his face fixed in an expression of stony anger. The only reason Jaarin was carrying him was to make sure that he didn't run off.

"Why don't you look on the bright side?" she asked, trying to engage him in conversation. "I've always wanted to be a Tamer, and now I am. We're a team now. We'll get to help Jenrya and Shiuchon and their partners take care of any wild Digimon that show up in the area. We'll be making a difference around here. Plus you'll get to work with Lopmon again; she used to be your teammate, didn't she? It'll be like old times."

Gazimon snorted. "Hmph! I rather be deleted and have my data absorbed again than help that traitor Lopmon and her friends. And that includes you!" he added with a sour glance in her direction.

Jaarin sighed; this was going to be harder than she thought. "What have you got against humans anyway? What did we do to you?"

"Humans are a disgusting, destructive race!" Gazimon declared. "You weren't content with polluting and corrupting your world; when you were finished with it you lot started messing with ours. So we have to take care of anything that threatens us. That includes you foul humans!"

"Well, like it or not what Qinglongmon said in there today was true," Jaarin pointed out. "If it wasn't for Dad and his friends, you wouldn't even be here." Gazimon arrogantly stuck his nose in the air, pointedly ignoring her. Jaarin sighed; it looked like being a Tamer was going to be a lot more difficult than she had first thought.

By the time dinnertime in the Lee household rolled around, Mrs. Lee and Riinchei had learned about Jaarin's new status as a Digimon Tamer. Mayumi didn't take the news very well, moaning about how another of her children would be out risking her life, but did her best to be accepting of Gazimon. Of course Gazimon's attitude didn't help matters, leaving Mrs. Lee to wonder how her sweet, polite eldest daughter could have been partnered with such a coarse creature. Rinchei complimented his sister about it, saying that he wished he had a Digimon partner of his own.

_Don't be so quick to say that, Rin-chan,_ Jaarin thought as she glanced over at her partner. Gazimon was sitting at the small table that had been set up for Lopmon and Terriermon in the dining room, eyeing the bowl of _miso_ soup that had been set in front of him with obvious mistrust. Every so often he would glance up at the humans at their dinner table, and shoot any one of them a glare.

"C'mon, eat up Gazimon!" Terriermon said in that rather cheerful way of his, something else that Gazimon found annoyed him to no end. "This stuff is really good! Mayumi-kaasan is a great cook!" Gazimon merely grunted in reply and continued to look at the soup.

Lopmon looked up from her own meal. "You've got to eat something, Gazimon," she said. "Starving yourself isn't going to do you or Jaarin any good. Besides," she added "would you rather be out foraging for your dinner instead?"

The scruffy rabbit 'mon glared at her, but picked up his spoon. _She has a point. Damnit, she **always** does this to me! Why?_ he thought to himself as he dipped the spoon in his _miso_ soup and brought it up to his lips. To his surprise it was quite good, better than some fare he had sampled in the Digital World and certainly much better than the real world food he'd tried when Zhuiqaomon had sent him to retrieve Culumon after his other eight Devas had failed. And it was definately better than having to search for food in the Digital World day after day. Before long Gazimon had finished the entire bowl. Glancing up, he noticed that Lopmon was quietly sipping her own soup, and that Terriermon had finished his own and was looking at him with an expression that clearly said, "I told you so." Gazimon clenched his fist and growled. Somehow the humans and their human-loving Digimon had taken him in, and he'd fallen for it. And that irritated him to no end.

The rest of the evening passed uneventfully, with each Lee wandering off to do his or her own thing. Janyuu and Jenrya disappeared into the boy's bedroom, presumably to look over the data from the extractor session earlier in the day, while Mrs. Lee went into the kitchen to take care of the dishes. Rinchei laid claim to the television and turned on a sports game while Jaarin and Shiuchon went into their own rooms. Gazimon noticed that Terriermon and Lopmon instinctively followed their Tamers, leaving him the only one left in the dining room.

It occured to him that this was the perfect chance to make a break for it. He could sneak out of the house, and with his knowledge of the layout of Shinjuku and knowledge borrowed from Impmon's data of where the only open portal to the Digital World in the city was, he could be heading back to the Digital World before the sun was even up. Grinning to himself, Gazimon crept toward the door. But as he reached out a paw to the doorknob to open the door, he found himself stopping. As much as he wanted to, he couldn't open the door. _Why can't I do this?_ he wondered to himself. _I want to get out of here, but something's stopping me!_ "Why can't I leave?" he asked himself aloud.

"Rinchei, have you seen my book?" Gazimon crept away from the door and peeked around the edge of the wall. Jaarin was standing behind the couch, glaring at her brother who was lying stretched out to his full-length on the couch.

"I left it here when Jenrya, Shiuchon-chan and I went to the Hypnos building this afternoon," she continued. "I know you had to have done something with it so you could use the entire couch as your lounge chair; now hand it over!"

Rinchei sighed and stuck one hand behind his back, pulling out a paperback novel. "All right, all right. Here," he said, holding it out to her. Catching a glimpse of the cover he grinned and commented, "Hey, this is a good book. How far have you gotten?"

"Fifth chapter," she answered.

"Ooh, that far? Too bad; the ending's _really_ awesome. You wanna hear it?" Rinchei grinned. Jaarin snatched the book from him, then thwacked him on the arm with it before going back to her bedroom.

_Could...**she** be the reason that I can't leave this place?_ Gazimon wondered to himself. _She said that she'd always wanted to be a Tamer, and now she's my Tamer. Is that why I can't bring myself to leave?_ Gazimon stared after Jaarin for a few seconds before snapping himself out of it and shaking his head violently. "No," he said to himself. "I'm not going to let some pathetic human control my life. I'm going to get out of this place!

_Why in the world can't I get out of this place?_ Gazimon thought to himself as he sat in Jaarin's bedroom window, staring up at the nighttime sky.

It had been a week since Gazimon had been reformatted, stripped of his powers as a Deva and made the partner of the human Lee Jaarin. Since that time Gazimon had made many more attempts to leave and head back to the Digital World, but each time could never bring himself to go more than five steps out the door. He kept justifying it to himself in his head: he was waiting until he had earned their trust and their guard was down. The other Tamers were probably guarding that portal to make sure that he didn't try anything. Mrs. Lee was a really good cook, as proven by her _miso_ soup and some other dishes. But he promised himself that he wouldn't be staying around forever. He'd make it back to the Digital World even if it killed him. Again.

"Hey. What're _you_ still doin' here?" a cocky, Brooklyn-accented voice asked, drawing Gazimon out of his introspection. He looked up to see Impmon on the fire escape in front of him. Without being invited, the goblin 'mon sat down on the windowsill beside him. "I thought you'd be back in da Digital Woild an' halfway ta da Land of da Four Holy Beasts by now."

"I...have my reasons for staying," Gazimon responded evasively. "What are _you_ doing here, Impmon?"

Impmon stretched. "Insomnia," he answered. "Some nights I get a little restless an' can't sleep, so I wander around da city fer a bit." Gazimon nodded, as if he accepted the reason as a plausible one, and the two Digimon sat in silence for several minutes. The rabbit 'mon found it a bit unnerving, sitting next to a former opponent that he had once been a part of. After a while Impmon spoke. "Hey Gaz. You mind if I give ya some advice?"

Gazimon shot him a Look at the nickname, but said nothing.

"Don't be in such a rush to leave," Impmon said. "Dis Tamer ting really ain't dat bad, and neither are da humans."

Gazimon arched an eyebrow. "Strange for you to be saying that," he commented, remembering some memories he had gleaned from Impmon's own data. "Didn't you leave your Tamers for a time?"

"Yeah, I did," Impmon admitted "an' it was da biggest mistake I evah made in my life. Second biggest," he amended. "But in da end I realized dat I wasn't really complete wit'out Ai-chan and Mako-chan in my life. I needed dem just as much as dey needed me. An' sure, dey fought, 'specially over me, but dey outgrew dat an' loined to share when dey realized it was what made me leave in da foist place. It's da same wit Shiuchon an' dat dress-up game she likes ta play." Gazimon shuddered, remembering back to earlier in the week when he'd narrowly escaped being pulled into that game. "Sure, it annoys da heck outta Terriermon an' Lopmon, but dey know dat she don't mean anyting hoitful by it. An' someday she'll grow outta it. Ya jest gotta give da humans a chance. Dey're not all as bad as Zhuiqaomon makes 'em out ta be. An' I know ya hoid dis before, but Qinglongmon was right. If Jaarin's dad an' his Wild Bunch buddies hadn't built dat machine, yer data would still be mixin' wit mine and ya wouldn't have dis second chance."

Impmon got up and stretched, popping a couple vertebrae in his back as he did so. "Well, I gotta get back before one-a da twins wakes up an' notices I'm missin'. I don't wanna make 'em tink dat I ain't comin' back agin. You tink about wat I said, _capice_? See ya 'round, Gaz." With that Impmon walked off into the night, in the direction of his own home.

Gazimon stared after him, and kept staring even after Impmon had disappeared into the shadows. A lot of what he had said weighed heavily on Gazimon's mind. He also knew that much, if not all of it, was true, what with his data having been absorbed by Beelzebumon and kept a part of Impmon all this time. And it made an inner part of Gazimon wonder if Impmon was right in suggesting that he give Jaarin a chance. _It's only fair,_ he thought to himself. _After all, she stood up for me when the other Tamers were ready to leave me to die or something._ He turned around and laid his eyes on Jaarin's sleeping form. Something inside of him stirred as he looked at her. _I guess I'll give it a chance,_ he thought to himself. Gazimon hopped down out of the window, quietly walked over to Jaarin's bed, climbed up on it and curled up at the end like a dog. _Kid, you've got yourself a Digimon,_ he thought before falling to sleep.

When Gazimon woke up the next morning it was to the usual sounds of morning chaos in the Lee household as the kids got ready for school and Janyuu got ready to go to work. He looked around, a bit disoriented, until he remembered his conversation with Impmon the night before and his own decision to sleep on Jaarin's bed instead of on the floor like he usually did. The door opened and he looked up in time to see Jaarin enter.

"Oh. Morning, Gazimon," Jaarin greeted him. She'd bade him good morning every morning since the first day that she had brought him home. But now Gazimon noticed a distinct lack of conviction between this most recent greeting and the first cheerful "Good morning!" that she had issued him. _Maybe I've got something to do with it,_ Gazimon thought to himself. Quietly he watched her pull her school uniform out of her closet.

"Um, Jaarin?" he spoke up nervously. The girl turned around and looked at him expectantly. "Um, you don't mind if I go to school with you today, do you?"

Jaarin blinked. Before this Gazimon had never expressed an interest in going to school with her. The first time she had asked if he wanted to go, he had given her a Look that plainly stated that he'd rather have a root canal done without painkiller. He reserved similar looks for Terriermon and Lopmon as he watched them accompany their tamers to school. After staring at him in disbelief for a few more seconds Jaarin finally asked, "Why?"

"Huh?" Gazimon said.

"Why the sudden interest in wanting to go to school with me?" Jaarin asked again. "I thought you hated humans and didn't want a thing to have to do with us, especially me. Why'd you change your mind?"

Gazimon fidgeted. "Well, I...did some thinking last night," he answered. Gazimon wasn't really sure he wanted to admit that it had been Impmon who had caused him to think twice about several things. "And I realized I haven't been exactly fair to you. So, can I?"

Jaarin smiled. "Sure."

Jaarin had been excited by the fact that Gazimon wanted to put some effort into being her Digimon, and was proving it by going to school with her. But as they entered the school yard, she began having second thoughts. Out of the corner of her eye she noticed as her fellow schoolmates caught glimpses of Gazimon for the first time. Some did double-takes, while others just stared and some others even pointed and whispered. Jaarin thought she caught the words "scruffy" a few times as she walked past, Gazimon seated on her shoulder. Personally she thought it was kind of cute; even though he looked like a rabbit, in some ways he still acted like a monkey.

The pair made it inside the school building with no problems, probably because people were too surprised by what they saw, Gazimon figured. Ignoring the whispered comments and stifled laughter that was building, Jaarin walked with Gazimon to her homeroom class and sat down at her desk. "So, what exactly do you do in here?" Gazimon asked, watching as other students filed in and sat down at their own desks. Jaarin began to quietly explain the concept of the public school system to him as a sallow-faced girl with short-cut brown hair approached her desk.

"Well, well, Lee Jaarin," she said, and Gazimon noticed a distinct snide accent in her voice. "What do we have here? Is this one of the rejects from your little sister's toybox?"

_"Toybox reject?"_ Gazimon thought to himself. _Why that little stuck-up... I've got a good mind to send a good Paralyze Breath her way._

Jaarin took a deep breath, reminding herself not to give this girl the satisfaction of knowing she'd gotten to her. "No, Sango. This is Gazimon. He's my Digimon partner."

Ogino Sango arched an eyebrow. "_You_" she repeated "have a Digimon partner?"

"Yes," responded Jaarin. "We've been partners for a week."

"Then why hasn't he come to school with you before?" Sango asked with a smirk.

"Because we've been working out some differences," Jaarin answered calmly. She scowled as Sango reached out and tweaked one of Gazimon's ears; Gazimon jerked back and favored the girl with a scowl of his own. "Could you leave him alone, please? He's not something for you to pick at."

Sango tucked her hand close to her chest. "Hmmph. Why would I want to hang around something so mangy anyway?"

"He is not mangy! Gazimon is a very well-kept Digimon! And he's more polite than certain people around here!" Jaarin proclaimed.

The other girl smirked. "I wasn't referring to your...'partner,'" she retorted, emphasizing the word "partner" with a mocking tone of voice.

Gazimon felt a rush of anger well up inside of him. A few insults directed his way he could tolerate. But how dare this snob try to belittle his partner? Now he _really_ had a good mind to try and Paralyze Breath her. To the surprise of everyone the scruffy-looking rabbit 'mon leapt up on the desk so that he was all but in Sango's face. "You watch your mouth!" he demanded. "Jaarin is my partner, and I won't stand for anyone putting down her or myself!" With that he sat down on the desk, legs dangling off of the edge and his back deliberately turned towards Sango. There was a smattering of applause from the other students who had gathered 'round, interested in seeing how this confrontation with Sango would turn out. Pouting, the other girl flounced over to her seat. The other students gravitated to their own desks as the teacher entered the room.

And Gazimon was the first thing she noticed.

"Miss Lee, _what_ is _that_?" she asked, pointing to Gazimon.

"_He_ is my Digimon partner, Mrs. Hotsuma," Jaarin answered. "His name is Gazimon."

"I thought I made it clear after the hamster incident that pets were not allowed in class," Mrs. Hotsuma told her. "I'm sorry, but he will have to leave. I'll let you leave class to go down to the office and call your mother to come pick him up."

Jaarin blinked; she wasn't going to let Gazimon stay! "You can't do that! He's not a pet, he's my partner! I'm his Tamer!"

Mrs. Hotsuma sighed. "Miss Lee, you are _really_ trying my patience..." she started to say.

"Please, Mrs. Hotsuma," Jaarin pleaded. "Don't send Gazimon home. He won't disrupt the class, I promise!" Gazimon nodded to agree with her.

Back in her seat, Sango made a snooty noise. "If I were you, Mrs. Hotsuma, I'd throw that mangy litle thing out. He probably has fleas, and who knows what sort of diseases he might be carrying? And he threatened me!"

"Hey!" Gazimon yelped, offended. He glared daggers at the pale girl.

Jaarin jumped up in her seat, slamming her hands on the top of her desk (and nearly knocking Gazimon off and onto the floor). "You little snob; how _dare_ you say that about Gazimon? He has more honor in one of his claws than you have in your entire body! And he did _not_ threaten you; he only shouted at you because _you_ provoked him!"

"I'm surprised he even knows what honor is!" Sango snapped back. Jaarin gasped and opened her mouth to retort, but the teacher stepped in.

"Miss Lee, Miss Ogino, I've heard quite enough out of the both of you," Mrs. Hotsuma said sternly. "Miss Lee, you know the rules about pets in school. And as for you, Miss Ogino, this is the third time this week that you've disrupted class. I'm not even going to bother with the hallway this time; to the principal's office, the both of you!"

Principal Miyamoto Yuusuke was known throughout the school as a stern, no-nonsense educator. He wanted Taiyou Academy to appear to the outside world as a professional school where only the brighest children of Shinjuku were taught. He was tempted to say that the brighest students in all of Japan went to his school, but he couldn't as long as the private academy in Tamachi and the Mugen Gakuen school in Juuban were still active. And of course, each school had its problem students.

Jaarin and Sango sat stiffly in the chairs in his office, trying not to squrim as Principal Miyamoto stared them down from across his desk. Sango was unconsciously gripping the armrests of her chair, as if to keep herself from bolting up and out the door. Gazimon sat on Jaarin's lap, the girl's hands clasped around his middle. Even the digimon couldn't help but feel a little intimidated by this man's presence.

Miyamoto looked at each girl, occassionally glancing at their records which lay open on his desk before him. He had seen Sango a few times before this present incident, always with the accusation that she had been copping an attitude with teachers. Miyamoto wished he could deal her a harsher punishment than detention, but then her parents were well-to-do people who helped fund a large part of the school and thought the world of their daughter, who was their only child. In short, Sango was pretty much untouchable. Jaarin, on the other hand, was a model student, the incident this morning not withstanding. She made good marks, was polite and friendly to her teachers and a majority of her classmates (one obvious exception was sitting right next to her). Plus she was the sister of two of the children who had helped save the city last year from that red, gelatinous mass that the Hypnos corporation had dubbed "D-Reaper."

Sighing, Miyamoto folded his hands on his desk and looked at both girls. "Now girls," he began "you both know that we neither allow nor condone fighting in this school."

"Yes, sir," the girls chorused.

"Miss Ogino, I've had this little discussion with you before I believe," he said to her. Sango nodded. "This time it will be a week's worth of after school detentions. If your parents have a problem with it, have them talk to me." Sango nodded, beaming, and Jaarin made a little sound, like a squeak, that may have been a protest. She stifled it when Miyamoto looked in her direction. "Now, Miss Lee. I believe this is the first time I've had you in my office for misbehaving in class. From what Mrs. Hotsuma tells me you refuse to send your pet rabbit home."

"He is _not_ a rabbit," Jaarin said for what felt like the hundredth time. "He is a Digimon, and he is my partner."

Miyamoto waved his hand as if to brush this excuse off. "Digimon or not, Miss Lee, he is still an animal, and therefore still qualifies as a pet."

Gazimon hopped to his feet in Jaarin's lap and bent forward, placing his paws on the edge of the principal's desk. "Animal?" he repeated. "How many animals do you know that can speak fluent Japanese and try to live their lives as civilized beings?"

"A rather rude little animal, at that," Miyamoto added, non-plussed. "The choice is yours, Miss Lee. Either you call your mother and have her take your...Digimon home, or else you can call and tell her to come pick you up from school, as you'll be suspended the rest of the day." Jaarin was silent for a long moment, as if weighing her options. Finally she stood up, forcing Gazimon to jump off of her lap before he fell off.

"Don't bother calling my mother, Mr. Miyamoto," Jaarin said with more than a touch of anger in her voice, as well as a hint of sarcasm. "It's such a nice day, I think I'll walk." With that she turned on her heel and calmly walked out of the office, Gazimon trailing behind her. Sango and Miyamoto stared after her a bit before the other girl smiled to herself and shrugged.

"That's one less mangy cur to deal with," she remarked non-chalantly as the principal tried to figure out what had just happened.

Gazimon trotted after Jaarin as fast as he could, trying to catch up with her as she exited the school. "Jaarin, wait!" he called, afraid that he would get left behind and forgotten in her anger. The girl stopped and waited for him to catch up, then bent down to allow him to scramble up onto her shoulder again. For a while they walked in silence, until Gazimon finally turned, looked his Tamer in the face and asked, "That wasn't a normal day at school, was it?"

Despite herself, Jaarin had to laugh.

**To Be Continued**


	3. Battle Situations

**Legal Disclaimer:** I do not own Digimon Tamers or any characters associated with it. Digimon is the property of Toei Entertainment and Sensations Animation. This fic is purely for entertainment purposes.  
**Series Title:** Being a Tamer  
**Chapter Title:** Battle Situations  
**Chapter:** 3 of 4  
**Focus:** Lee Jaarin, Gazimon  
**Rated:** PG  
**Season/Timeline:** Digimon Tamers, eight months after the defeat of D-Reaper and two months after the fight with Locomon/Parismon in the sixth movie.  
**Summary:** An innocent wish changes Lee Jaarin's life after she becomes jealous of Jenrya and Shiuchon.  
**Additional Notes:** After noticing that Jenrya and Jaarin (the eldest Lee daughter) seemed pretty close in age, I have decided to make them twins; however, this could be considered a Tamers AU as canonically Jaarin is 15 years old.

"I don't believe this. _You_ got sent home from school?"

Jaarin glared at her older brother. "You don't have to rub it in, Rinchei. Besides, I didn't get sent home. Principal Miyamoto gave me a choice, and I chose to leave."

Rinchei shrugged. "Whatever. All I know is that Mom and Dad are going to freak when they find this out. You know they had hopes for you, going to that fancy private school and all." Jaarin groaned and she slumped over in her seat, drawing one hand up to her forehead as if to ward away a headache. Looking up, she shot Rinchei a severe Look.

"Thanks, Rinchei; I _so_ needed to hear that," she told him.

After being sent away from school Jaarin and Gazimon hadn't gone straight home, the former being unable to face her mother about this disgrace right away. Instead they had wandered around town with no particular destination in mind. They ate her packed lunch in the park, sharing some of it with Guilmon when he inevitably showed up after sniffing out the food. After lunch the pair walked around the park a bit, running into Mrs. Katou, Masahiko and Culumon while they were there. Culumon got one look at Gazimon and hid behind Masahiko, whimpering and shaking. To Gazimon's surprise he felt hurt that the small Baby II was frightened of him. He'd held out a paw towards Culumon as a gesture of friendship, but this only served to make the little guy shrink back. Jaarin and Gazimon left the park, Gazimon sporting a wounded look on his face. Fortunately when the pair had reached the Lee apartment no one was home, which meant the explanation was postponed that much further. In fact the first person she had told was Rinchei, which caused his amused reaction.

Now her elder brother put a consoling hand on her back. "Hey, I'm sorry I laughed," he apologized. "It's just, well...I expected this kind of thing to happen to someone at _my_ school, or maybe even to Jen's friend Hirokazu. You're kind of the last person anyone would expect to get sent home from school. Besides, I'm proud of you for standing up to that snob Sango. That took real guts, Jaarin-chan. And whatever Mom and Dad say, I'm behind you 100."

The girl smiled. "Thanks, Rinchei."

Jenrya and Shiuchon were the next to come home, the little girl babbling away about everything she had done in class that day while Jenrya pretended to be listening; Jaarin and Rinchei hid smiles at the small eye twitch their brother had acquired. Then it was their turn to listen as Jaarin retold the events of the day that got Gazimon and herself suspended from school. Both Jenrya and Shiuchon were sympathetic to the situation.

Her parents, on the other hand, were not. The reason Mrs. Lee was not at home when Jaarin eventually came back was because she had received a phone call from Taiyou Academy asking if Jaarin had arrived home safely. Since Jaarin and Gazimon hadn't been home at the time, that had sent Mayumi into full panic mode and she had taken the bus around Shinjuku looking for her daughter. She had even gone to the Hypnos building, thinking Jaarin might have gone there, and ended up telling the story to Janyuu who joined her in the search. Both adults were disapponinted that Jaarin had been sent home from school for fighting with a fellow student, and for refusing to obey school rules.

"When you go back tomorrow, you shall take a letter of apology to both Mrs. Hotsuma and to Sango," Mrs. Lee said.

"I'm not going back," Jaarin responded quietly.

The rest of her family stared at her in shock for several quiet minutes. Finally Mrs. Lee managed a shaken, "W-what?"

"I'm not going back. Not to that school," Jaarin repeated firmly. "Not if they won't allow Gazimon."

"Why can't you just leave Gazimon here?" Mrs. Lee protested weakly.

Jaarin fixed her mother with a Look. "If I have to leave Gazimon here at home while I'm at school, then Jenrya and Shiuchon have to leave their partners at home as well. It's only fair." This brooked shouted protests from Terriermon and Lopmon's Tamers.

"Hold it, hold it!" Janyuu interrupted. "Now, we haven't made any decisions yet. Jaarin, if we _did_ let you leave Taiyou Academy, where would you go to school?"

"Yodobashi Elementary, where Jenrya, Shiuchon-chan and their friends go to school," Jaarin answered automatically, as if she had had this on her mind for a while now. Jenrya blinked while Mr. and Mrs. Lee looked at each other.

Mrs. Lee sighed. "Jaarin, please give this some more thought. I remember in the third grade when you fought with us to get you enrolled in the academy. Why do you want to throw that all away?"

"I don't want to continue going to there if I'm going to have to sacrifice my dignity as well as that of my partner," the girl replied. "I'd much rather be a regular student going to a public school than go to a private one and become an elitist snob."

Janyuu and Mayami exchanged looks again. "Well, if she's so passionate about it I don't see how we can say no," Janyuu said.

"You're just going to give in to her?" Mrs. Lee asked. "Janyuu, think of the money we've spent to keep her in that school! She is one of the top-ranked students in her class; are you really going to let her throw that all away?"

"If it comes to a choice between her grades or her scruples I say let Jaarin transfer," Janyuu countered. "Besides, who's to say she wouldn't do equally as well at a different school?"

"Hey," Jenrya spoke up. "Shiuchon and I go to Yodobashi; don't we get a say in this?"

"Fine," his father responded. "Do you two have any opinions about this?"

Jenrya bit his lip. "Well," he said "I think what Jaarin wants to do is admirable. And, truthfully, it is her choice so I think you should give her a chance and trust her on this."

Rinchei put up his hands when his mother looked him. "Hey, don't drag me into this. I don't attend the elementary school anymore, remember? Besides, Jaarin already knows what my opinion on this whole thing is." He winked at his sister.

Mayumi looked to her youngest daughter. "Shiuchon? What do you think?"

The pigtailed girl was silent for a moment, as if contemplating her decision. Then she jumped up and flung her arms around Jaarin's waist. "I can't wait until you come to our school! It's gonna be so much fun!" Janyuu looked over at his wife as if to say that that was the deciding verdict. Mayumi responded by throwing her hands up in the air in defeat and walking off.

"So does this mean I can transfer?" Jaarin asked her father.

"I'll talk to your mother some more, but I don't see any problems with it," Janyuu replied. "We'll start making the arrangements as soon as possible."

"As soon as possible" turned out to be the very next day. After a two hour-long talk with her husband Mayumi agreed that a transfer of schools for Jaarin might be in her best interests. So while Jaarin attended her last day of school at Taiyou Academy, her mother called to make the arrangements. Needless to say Principal Miyamoto and Mrs. Hotsuma were surprised when they read in the letters of apology that Jaarin had given them that she wouldn't be attending their school anymore. At the end of the day, while the other children were grabbing their coats and backpacks, Jaarin calmly and methodically cleaned out her desk. The next couple days Jaarin and Gazimon spent at home while her transfer from Taiyou Academy to Yodobashi Elementary was approved and completed. The pair passed the time doing housework that Mrs. Lee would normally have been doing, had she been at home. Instead she was out doing errands. Jaarin felt that she had disappointed her mother by deciding to leave her old school, so her mother didn't want to be around her.

"Boy," Gazimon said as he picked a damp glass out of the drain rack. "And I thought going on missions for Zhuiqaomon-sama was bad. The stuff he had us doing had nothing on housework." He shuddered. "I'm still having nightmares about that vacuum cleaner." Jaarin giggled, and the two of them continued washing the dishes in silence.

At length, Jaarin glanced over at her partner. "Gazimon," she said, taking a break and resting her elbows on the edge of the sink "how did you end up serving Zhuiqaomon? How did you end up being a Deva?"

Gazimon took a deep breath and exhaled slowly, placing the saucer he'd been drying in its proper cupboard before turning to face his Tamer. "It's a long story," he admitted. "Zhuiqaomon-sama called a dozen Digimon: myself, Lopmon and ten other Child Digimon. It was before Culumon was created and the power of evolution had been locked inside of him. We were to become the 12 Devas, Zhuiqaomon's special force of Digimon, protectors of the Land of the Four Holy Beasts. To accomplish this, he gave us the power to evolve to Perfection without having to reach Adult."

"So that's why Lopmon evolves straight to Antiramon," Jaarin interrupted. Gazimon nodded, taking the interruption in stride. "So you evolved to Makuramon and Lopmon evolved to Antiramon. Just out of curiosity, what were the child forms of the others?"

The gray rabbit 'mon looked up at the ceiling, lost in thought. "Majiramon evolved from Bakumon - that's the elephant-like Digimon with smoke for hind legs. Kunbiramon evolved from a Terriermon, unrelated to your brother's partner. Shinduramon the Chicken Deva evolved from Penmon, while Santiramon's Child form was Wormmon. Indaramon had once been V-mon, and Mihiramon was once an innocent Plotmon. Pajiramon and Vajiramon were an Armadimon and a Tentomon, respectively. Vikararamon's Child stage had been Bokomon, and Chatsuramon's a Labramon."

"Gazimon?" Jaarin said after a few minutes when she noticed her partner had fallen silent. "Is anything wrong?"

"I was thinking," Gazimon answered. "Lopmon told me yesterday that Janyuu-san and the other scientists tried scanning Impmon for Leomon's data again."

Jaarin blinked. "I thought they were going to use Juri's D-Arc to shorten the parameters of the search." Gazimon nodded to confirm this.

"But Shibumi-san thought they should try again before having to borrow Juri's D-Arc. So they scanned and removed the foriegn data and recomplied it in the D-Box. But before anyone could see if the Digimon they had retrieved was Leomon or not, it just up and disappeared." Jaarin looked at her partner and asked why he was so concerned. "The only other Digimon I know for certain that Impmon absorbed was Chatsuramon, after Dukemon deleted him. If it had been Leomon that had come back, he wouldn't have disappeared like that."

"So you think it was Chatsuramon," Jaarin said. Gazimon nodded. "Do you think Zhuiqaomon called him back to the Digiworld?" Her partner shrugged. Tenatively Jaarin asked, "Are you jealous if that's the case?"

"No!" Gazimon exclaimed a little suddenly, causing them both to jump. "I may have been a little jealous at first, but not anymore."

Jaarin smiled. "So, what was being a Deva like? I mean, what did you do?"

Gazimon smiled at the memories. "Peace-keeping, mostly, which meant taking care of anything that threatened the Land of the Four Holy Beasts and the Digi-Gods, especially Zhuiqaomon-sama, and Culumon after he had been created and the power of evolution locked inside of him. We liked to pair off: Vajiramon and Pajiramon together, for instance; Chatsuramon and Mihiramon, and Vikararamon and Kunbiramon, believe it or not. Antiramon and I were quite the team. She was the largest of all the Devas height-wise, and she was _fast_. I doubt even Renamon could beat her in a flat-out run. And I had my smaller size compared to most of the foes we went up against, not to mention my agility and my powers of illusion."

"Then what happened?"

"Culumon escaped from the Land of the Four Holy Beasts, and Zhuiqaomon-sama charged us to go track him down. But he only sent out eleven of us." Gazimon shifted position so that he was sitting on the edge of the counter, hind legs and tail dangling off the edge. "Antiramon was made to stay behind, to guard the gate that led to Zhuiqaomon-sama's resting place. He didn't want to be left vulnerable if another Digimon somehow managed to get ahold of Culumon and use his evolutionary powers, and as the tallest Antiramon was possibly the most intimidating-looking of all of us.."

Jaarin snorted. "Gazimon, he's a Digimon god! How invulnerable can you get?"

Her partner chuckled. "You have a point, but at the time I didn't question it; I just followed orders. Then we found out that Culumon had somehow managed to escape to this world, and we were sent after him. Chatsuramon had his own agenda, though, and remained behind, as did Majiramon for reasons unknown. And of course Antiramon stayed behind. By that time...my priorities had changed. Catching Culumon had become a competition between the rest of us; we knew that whoever caught Culumon and brought him back would be looked upon very favorably by Zhuiqaomon-sama. And I wanted to be that Deva. So I had no qualms about kidnapping your little sister and taking her to Zhuiqaomon-sama after I lost Culumon."

"It went to your head, all that power," Jaarin summarized. Gazimon nodded, apparently ashamed. "Don't feel too badly, Gazimon. All that's in the past now; you've got a whole new life with us." With a light-hearted smile she added, "Besides, I'm sure one of these days you and Lopmon will get that old team back together." Gazimon smiled along with her.

Just then there was a knock on the front door. Jaarin headed out of the kitchen, wiping her hands on her apron as she went to answer the door. Opening it she found one of her former classmates standing outside. "Chiaki-san. What're you doing here?"

Chiaki Koharu, one of Jaarin's former classmates, nervously shifted her weight from one foot to another as she held a thin packet of papers out to Jaarin. "I brought you this, Lee-san. It's the last test we took before you left school. Mrs. Hotsuma didn't think you'd want it, but I volunteered to bring it to you anyway."

"Thanks Koharu," Jaarin said. "How are things at Taiyou, anyway? Did the class throw a party the day after I left?"

"No," Koharu answered. "But...something kind of strange _did_ happen this afternoon, outside during lunchbreak. This strange fog sprang up near Sango's table, and a creature that looked like it was made of slime popped out. Sango started freaking out, especially when this funny-looking lime green and white watch appeared beside her and the creature said that it and she were partners... Lee-san? Why are you laughing? What's so funny?"

The next morning Jaarin nibbled nervously at her breakfast. It was her first day at Yodobashi Elementary school. Jaarin wondered how the other students there would receive her. Would they think she was a snob when they found out she had transferred from Taiyou Academy? Or would they think she was dumb because she had transferred out of it?

At least she was assured that she would have some friends at Yodobashi; namely Jenrya, Shiuchon and the rest of the Tamers barring Ruki and Ryo. And Gazimon would be there with her, of course. She had received permission from the principal for him to come with her to school, as it was occasionally the focal point of the errant digital field. All of the Tamers who attended Yodobashi Elementary had permission to bring their Digimon with them for this reason; the only ones who weren't allowed into the building were Guardromon and Guilmon because of the former's size and the latter's appetite. Those two, along with Impmon, divided their time between the school and the park.

After breakfast Jaarin went to her bedroom to change for school. She had just reached for her uniform when she realized that she didn't need to wear it. Jenrya wore street clothes all the time; why should she be any different? Grinning, she moved her hand away from her uniform and selected a semi-longsleeved shirt of pale yellow and a pair of long pants that were dark purple, almost plum in color. A lilac-colored vest with white trim that closed with a dark purple tie went over top of the shirt. The finishing touch was her D-Arc, which she clipped to her belt loop. With a new wardrobe to go along with her new start, Jaarin headed off to school with her partner, her siblings and their partners.

It wasn't long before they were joined by Takato and Guilmon. Takato greeted Jenrya and Shiuchon amicably enough, but hesitated when he came to Jaarin and Gazimon. "Uh, hi Jaarin, Gazimon. It's, uh, nice to have you at our school."

Jaarin giggled, and Gazimon shot Takato a mock Look. "You don't have to be so nervous, Matsuda. It's not like I'm going to leap off of Jaarin's shoulder and bite you." Takato's eyes flew open wide and he flushed red while Jaarin giggled.

"Uh...yeah, okay. Come on, let's get to school before we're late." The group continued on walking. Once they reached the schoolyard Shiuchon and Lopmon ran off in one direction when they had spotted Impmon, Ai and Mako while Takato and Jenrya led Jaarin over to the stone clubhouse that had become the headquarters for the Tamers of Yodobashi Elementary. Hirokazu, Kenta and Juri were already there, Kenta and Juri holding their Digimon in their laps while Guardromon stood intimidatingly outside.

"Welcome to Yodobashi Elementary, Jaarin-san," Juri greeted her as Jenrya's twin sat down. Gazimon she greeted with a simple, quiet nod before murmuring quietly to Culumon, who was burying his head in her shirt.

Gazimon sighed, then hopped down from his perch on Jaarin's shoulder so that he was standing in the middle of the group. "Look, I realize that most of you don't trust me as far as you can throw me, although I'm not exactly sure how far a Gazimon _can_ be thrown. My point is, I realize that I've made some mistakes in the past, and I can't go back in time to change them. But I just want to say that I'm sorry, and I hope you can at least forgive me."

The Tamers were quiet for a moment, apparently thinking about what Gazimon had said. Finally Juri looked at him and quietly said, "I forgive you, Gazimon."

"Yeah, so do I," chimed in Takato, and Hirokazu and Kenta quickly added their admissions of forgiveness as did their Digimon. Culumon still looked a little frightened, but Gazimon couldn't really blame him for that. The only person who hadn't spoken was Jenrya.

"C'mon, Jenrya, say something," Terriermon prompted.

Jenrya's expression didn't change. "I've got nothing to say," he said finally. Jaarin and Gazimon sighed in unison; Jenrya was going to be a harder nut to crack than they thought. _At least_ Gazimon thought _a majority of the others forgave me._

At that moment the bell rang, and the Tamers climbed out of their hideout and headed into the school building. "So, Jaarin," Hirokazu asked "whose homeroom are you in?"

"Let me check my schedule," the new student answered, pulling a folded sheet of paper out of her pocket and unfolding it. "Miss Asaji," she read off of the paper. The other Tamers, except for Jenrya, halted in their tracks and nearly fell over. "What's the matter? What's wrong? Is she- is she a bad teacher?"

Kenta shook his head. "No. She's just my homeroom teacher, too."

"And mine," chimed in Takato.

"And mine," Hirokazu added.

"Mine too," finished Juri.

"Don't look at me," Jenrya said when his sister looked at him. "Iwamoto-sensei is my homeroom teacher."

Jaarin blinked. "How come so many of you are in the same homeroom?"

Takato shrugged. "We don't know, though Dr. McCoy and Shibumi are thinking of looking into that theory. Well come on, we don't want to be late. She's not a mean teacher, but she is strict." With that in mind, the five of them headed into Miss Asaji's classroom while Jenrya and Terriermon went off to Jenrya's homeroom.

Takato, Kenta, Hirokazu and Juri quickly went to their chairs and sat down, talking with friends as they did so. Jaarin remained at the head of the class with Miss Asaji so that she could introduce herself. The teacher welcomed her, and greeted Gazimon politely enough before giving the new student a list of things that Digimon were and weren't allowed to do in her class. The rabbit 'mon refrained from rolling his eyes at the list. After a few more minutes, Miss Asaji called the class to order.

"Class, today we have a new student with us. Her name is Lee Jaarin, and she recently transferred here from Taiyou Private Academy," the teacher announced. "Now I'm sure you will all welcome her and treat her respectfully. Yes, Yusuke?" she sighed, calling on a student whose hand was raised.

"How come she transferred out of the academy and over to here?" Yusuke asked. Miss Asaji sighed quietly; apparently "tact" was something a few of her students had yet to learn.

Jaarin answered the question calmly. "There were irreconcilable differences between myself, the faculty and some of the students." When it was evident that there were no more questions, Miss Asaji directed Jaarin to find an empty seat. She walked down one of the aisles and found a desk that was kitty corner to Kenta and Hirokazu's desks. With the new student situated, Miss Asaji began the first lesson of the day.

At lunchtime all of the Tamers gathered together to eat their lunches and talk; even Ai, Mako, Shiuchon and their partners were there, and Guardromon and Guilmon had joined them for lunch. Gazimon recounted some of what he had told Jaarin a day earlier while they were doing the dishes. He included his comments on Lopmon's speed as Antiramon, making her blush. Jaarin then gave the condensed version of what caused her to leave Taiyou Academy, with the epilogue involving Sango's becoming Tamer to a Numemon. Except for the fact that nine Digimon comprised nearly half the group that was sitting at their table, the lunch period proceeded normally. At least until the bell rang to signal that it was time to come in.

As students began to file back into the school, Guilmon's normally innocent expression suddenly changed, and he let out a feral growl. "What's wrong?" Jaarin asked, suddenly a little afraid. "What is it?"

"A digital field," her brother answered, a serious tone to his voice. "When one usually forms there's a wild Digimon waiting on the other side. Sometimes it's one that got caught up in a data stream and is just lost and confused, but other times it wants to cause trouble."

"What if it wants to cause trouble?" his twin asked.

Takato answered, "Then we fight it and, if necessary, delete it." Jaarin shivered, partially out of the shuddery feeling the spreading fog was giving her and partially out of reaction from Takato's statement.

"Look out; it's realizing!" Hirokazu shouted the warning. The children and Digimon watched as a large, hulking figure stepped into their line of sight. Jenrya's analyzer identified it as a Hyougamon, a blue, ice-element version of Ogremon. The Hyougamon quickly introduced himself with his Icicle Toss attack, tossing the large icicle into the midst of the Tamers and causing them to scatter.

"Shiuchon; Ai, Mako!" Jenrya called over his shoulder as the group spread out. "Try to find anyone else who got caught in this thing and make sure they stay on the sidelines!" The three youngest Tamers didn't argue; they knew their job was just as important as that of the older Tamers. The kids didn't want any casualties on their hands.

"Too bad Ruki isn't here," Kenta commented, also staying on the sidelines with Marine Angemon. "Renamon would probably already have this guy halfway on the ground by now."

"Well, she's not here, so we're going to have to do the best we can without her," Takato answered. "Looks like we're all clear; go for it, Guilmon!"

"Fireball!" the red dino Digimon attacked, spitting a sphere of fire at the ice-ogre. Hyougamon threw his arms up over his face to protect himself, and growled when he found that the attack had singed his arm. Terriermon was on the ball, using Guilmon's head as a launching platform to get enough height to launch a Blazing Fire attack at Hyougamon. The attack nailed him right in the face, effectively blinding him. Unfortunately the term "blind" also referred to his emotional state, for immediately following this development the Hyougamon went berserk. He lashed out with his club and his Icicle Toss attack at anything he sensed moving. The only solution the Tamers had for this course of action was to run to avoid being hit by either club or icicle.

Then in the middle of all this running, Jaarin tripped over the strap of a backpack that someone had left lying on the ground while fleeing from the digital field. Her momentum sent her sprawling on the ground face-first. "Jaarin-chan!" Gazimon yelped, running over to her. "Are you all right?" he asked as she rolled over onto her back, clutching her left leg.

"No; I think I scraped my knee up pretty bad," she answered, teeth clenched in pain. Gazimon looked and saw what appeared to be a large amount of blood oozing from the wound. Just then a growl nearby caused Gazimon to turn his attention elsewhere. The Hyougamon still couldn't see, but his other senses were still working at top capacity. And he had smelled the blood from Jaarin's scraped knee and was now following the scent.

Right to Jaarin.

Gazimon felt the anger rush up inside of him, as it had when Sango had insulted Jaarin in class a few days ago. Only this time it was burning hotter and fiercer. This wasn't some schoolyard bully; this was an Adult Digimon who was out for blood, with a human as the intended donor. Only it wasn't just _any_ human Hyougomon was after; she was _Gazimon's_ human.

Dropping to all fours, Gazimon raced along the ground to intercept the Hyougamon before it got too close to Jaarin. He didn't waste any time, either. "Paralyze Breath!" He blew a dark cloud out of his mouth. The cloud then spread over the Hyougamon, and when it dissipated the ice digimon was unable to move.

"Destruction Grenade!" A whistling sound in the air signaled the advent of Guardromon's missiles, so Gazimon swiftly moved out of the way. The whistle-blowing shells struck the immobilized Hyougamon head-on, reducing him to a glittering confetti of data. Yet after having either witnessed or been a part of what going through data extraction was like, no one was too eager to absorb the data of the Hyougamon.

As the digital fog slowly dissipated, Jenrya and the other Tamers rushed over to Jaarin. The girl had already propped herself up on her elbows, and was grimacing at the pain her scraped knee was causing. "Jaarin, are you okay?" Jenrya asked anxiously.

"I'm fine, Jenrya, don't worry," Jaarin assured him. "I just scraped my knee up a bit."

"Here, let me take care of that for you," Kenta offered. Before Jaarin could protest Marine Angemon flew over and hovered before the injury. He pursed his lips and blew, sending blue bubbles over the injury. Jaarin watched in surprise as the bleeding slowed and then stopped, then disappeared altogether as new skin closed over the open sore. Within minutes it was as if the scrape had never been there at all.

Jaarin turned surprise-filled eyes from her uninjured leg to Kenta. "Thank you," she said.

The other Tamers also were looking at Kenta. "I didn't know Marine Angemon could do that," Hirokazu finally said. "How come you didn't tell me?" His tone of voice was wounded, as if Kenta had kept a vital secret hidden from the person he had no secrets from.

The green-haired boy shrugged. "I didn't know he could do it until a couple days ago, when my dad accidentally sliced his hand open while doing some housework. Marine Angemon had it all fixed up before Mom could even dial for the ambulance."

Juri looked back towards the school, and the Tamers noticed for the first time that the schoolyard was empty, save for their group. "We'd better get back inside," she suggested as Jaarin got to her feet with an assist from her twin. The Tamers filed into the building, with Jaarin and Gazimon at the back of the line. Gazimon's expression was wide-eyed, as if something had happened during the battle that he didn't expect to happen. In fact, that was the very case; today in battle he had leapt to Jaarin's defense without a second thought. He had protected her, like the Digimon of the other Tamers had done countless times.

As he wrestled to come to grips with this, Jaarin looked down at her partner. "Thank you," she said quietly.

Gazimon smiled, and stopped his wrestling.

**To Be Concluded**


	4. Gazimon's Choice

**Legal Disclaimer:** I do not own Digimon Tamers or any characters associated with it. Digimon is the property of Toei Entertainment and Sensations Animation. This fic is purely for entertainment purposes.  
**Series Title:** Being a Tamer  
**Chapter Title:** Gazimon's Choice  
**Chapter:** 4 of 4  
**Focus:** Lee Jaarin, Gazimon  
**Rated:** PG  
**Season/Timeline:** Digimon Tamers, eight months after the defeat of D-Reaper and two months after the fight with Locomon/Parismon in the sixth movie.  
**Summary:** An innocent wish changes Lee Jaarin's life after she becomes jealous of Jenrya and Shiuchon.  
**Additional Notes:** After noticing that Jenrya and Jaarin (the eldest Lee daughter) seemed pretty close in age, I have decided to make them twins; however, this could be considered a Tamers AU as canonically Jaarin is 15 years old.

**Gazimon's Choice**

A week had passed since the battle with the Hyougamon battle in the Yodobashi schoolyard. After witnessing Gazimon actually saving his sister's life, Jenrya found his opinion of the former monkey Deva changing. He hadn't quite forgiven him for kidnapping Culumon and trying to kidnap Shiuchon, but he had begun acting civil towards Gazimon around the house. Jaarin knew it was more than she could ask for from him at this point, and did her best not to try and push her twin too hard about the situation. As for Gazimon himself, he seemed to have fully adjusted to being a Tamer's Digimon instead of the Deva he once had been. He accompanied Jaarin to school every day, sometimes sitting with her in class and occassionally hanging out outside with Guardromon, Guilmon and Impmon. Even Culumon appeared to be a little less afraid around him now.

Presently, the Digimon Tamers and their partners were once more gathered in the Hypnos building, and once more Impmon was lying on the table beneath the data extractor, sensor wires sticking all over his body. Yamaki was even there, like he was an official representative of the Hypnos corporation. Fortunately the Wild Bunch had learned from their past two attempts, and had connected Juri's D-Arc to Rai's computer to narrow down the search parameters. Additionally, Dr. McCoy had made an adjustment to the D-Box. Now if the Digimon that was recomplied was not recognizable to the computers as Leomon, it would kill the digital field before the Digimon could fully reconfigure, thus leaving the digimon's data in limbo.

"Is everyone ready?" Janyuu asked. Rai and Lilian nodded from their computer stations. "Impmon?"

"Yeah, lets do dis," the goblin 'mon said. "'Eck, I've been _past_ ready t' get dis over wit."

Takato nodded. "Yeah. It's about time _all_ of us had our Digimon partners back." He smiled at Juri, who blushed and returned it.

Janyuu nodded at Rai, who began the data scanner. But just as the process was beginning, the Hypnos building rocked with the force of an explosion. "What the hell was that?" Jenrya asked, his Tai Chi training the only thing keeping him from totally losing his footing.

"Jenrya!" Janyuu exclaimed, shocked by his son's language.

Ai had been sitting in a chair positioned underneath a window when the interruption had occured. Now she was standing on it in order to look out the window. "There's a big Digimon down there," she reported. When asked what it looked like she said, "He's a big doggie. A big white and purple doggie."

Gazimon and Lopmon's eyes widened. "Chatsuramon," they chorused.

Heads whirled in their direction. "What?" exclaimed Takato. "But I thought I killed that guy in the Digital World!"

"Yeah, and then Beelzebumon absorbed his data," Ruki added with a glance in Impmon's direction.

"Yes, but I fear we may have recomplied him several days ago, when we tried ressurecting Leomon again," Shibumi admitted somewhat sheepishly.

The Tamers stared at the Wild Bunch in shock, slack-jawed, for several minutes before finally saying as one, "You WHAT?"

"Dad, why didn't you tell us?" Jenrya demanded.

"We weren't sure who it was," Janyuu explained hastily. "Before we could identify the Digimon that was reformatted, it disappeared from the D-Box."

"Zhiuqaomon," Gazimon growled, for once foregoing the honorific for his former master's name. "He pulled Chatsuramon back to the Digital World before anyone could destroy him. Now he's obviously sent him back here on some mission or another." Another explosion punctuated this statement, sending several people in the room sprawling.

"Someone had better do something, before he manages to shake this whole place down!" Yamaki snapped, getting up from his semi-prone postiion on the floor. His only answer was the slam of the door to the room they were in, coupled by Jenrya and Janyuu calling out the name of the eldest Lee daughter.

Jaarin fairly flew down the back stairways of the Hypnos building, not even bothering to take the elevator. She wasn't even sure what had possessed her to take off like that, other than the fact that Chatsuramon had to be stopped before the entire building collapsed. The building shook a few more times as they made their way down, forcing Jaarin to anchor herself to the railing, and Gazimon to anchor himself to Jaarin.

Finally they reached the bottom of the stairwell where there were two doors: one that led outside and was marked "Emergency Exit," and another that led into the building proper. Figuring that this situation _did_ fit under the classification of "emergency," Jaarin ripped the door open and she and Gazimon dashed out just as alarms filled the building.

"Shuvobushana!" Just as Ai had said, there was Chatsuramon sending attacks at the base of the Hypnos building in an obvious attempt to weaken the foundation, or just send the walls caving in. However, he stopped once he caught sight of Jaarin and her partner. He grinned toothily as he laid eyes on Gazimon. "Well, well. Nice to see you again...Makuramon."

Gazimon scowled. "You need your eyes examined, Chatsuramon. I'm not exactly a monkey anymore. Now what do you want?"

Chatusramon chuckled, a low, throaty sound. As he watched the remaining Tamers run out of the building he answered, "Why nothing, Gazimon. Nothing except to bring you a message from Zhuiqaomon-sama."

Any retort Gazimon was planning died on his tongue. "Zhuiqaomon-sama?" he repeated.

"Yes," answered Chatsuramon. "He's discovered what Qinglongmon did to you, and finds it utterly disgraceful and disrespectful of your status as a Deva. Therefore he's sent me to fetch you, and bring you back to the Digital World where he'll restore you to your true power." The other Tamers gasped at hearing this offer.

But what was worse was that Gazimon actually seemed taken in by it.

"You're serious?" Gazimon asked. "He'd really do that?"

Chatsuramon nodded. "Of course. You _were_ his most trusted Deva, after all." Mentally Chatsuramon was disgusted with himself, doing all this sucking up just so he could lure Gazimon into Zhuiqaomon-sama's trap. But Chatsuramon was a Deva, and the Devas were supposed to follow Zhuiqaomon's orders. "Think of it," Chatsuramon continued. "Wouldn't it be wonderful to be in the Digital World again, seeing the beauty of the Land of the Four Holy Beasts every day?"

"Gazimon, please," Jaarin pleaded "don't do it! You gave all that up, remember?"

The canine Deva chuckled. "Don't listen to her. Once a Deva, always a Deva, remember? There's no denying it."

They watched as the scruffy rabbit 'mon slowly shuffled towards Chatsuramon, head drooping towards the ground as if all the starch had gone out of his neck and he couldn't support the weight of his ears, and tail dragging limply on the ground. "Come, Gazimon, hurry," the canine Deva prompted. "We don't want to keep Zhuiqaomon-sama waiting, do we?" He chuckled low in his throat as the mangy-looking Child came closer. "Just a few more steps, and you'll be back to your old self and we'll have our revenge against the humans. We'll start with that little ingrate who dares call herself your Tamer."

Gazimon halted. "What did you call her?" asked a quiet voice hardly recognizable as his.

"She's an ingrateful, disgusting human, just like the rest of their kind," Chatsuramon repeated. "They should be wiped out of existance; you know that."

Gazimon's head suddenly jerked up, as if a puppet master had suddenly pulled up on the strings that controlled his head. His eyes blazed with anger, and he leaped at Chatsuramon scratching at the dog Deva's face with his claws before landing. "What?" Chatsuramon gasped. "But- that's impossible! I thought you..."

"Get one thing straight, Chatsuramon: no one threatens to wipe out _my_ Tamer!" Gazimon yelled at him. "You almost had me with your talk about Zhuiqaomon and the Digital World, but nothing and no Digimon is going to rival or destroy my loyalty to Jaarin!"

"So, you have turned traitor as well it seems," Chatsuramon surmised. "It looks like I'll get to kill you after all. Shuvobushana!"

There was a flurry of activity all over the area, from the Tamers dodging the attack to Guilmon, Terriermon and Renamon swiftly evolving to their Perfection forms.

The battle had been joined.

"Atomic Blaster!" Megalo Growmon was the first to attack Chatsuramon, attacking the canine Deva from the one side. Rapidmon attacked from the other with his Rapid Fire attack while Taomon used a Fox Seal Paper to freeze him in place. Chatsuramon managed to break through all three attacks, then using his own Treasure Mallet attack took a swing at all three Perfection Digimon.

"Man, it's times like this I wish that Guardromon could evolve to Perfection," Hirokazu said as he, Kenta and their partners hovered on the fringes of the battle. "Andromon could probably sure be a big help right about now." They flinched as Cyber Dramon hovered above Chatsuramon and fired a Cyber Nail attack at him, only for Chatsuramon to almost completely ignore the attack. Ryo's partner let out a feral growl, angered that his opponent would defy him like this. "Kenta?"

"Hm?" Kenta responded.

"Remind me never to get Cyber Dramon pissed off at me."

Kenta nodded. "Noted."

"How come Marine Angemon doesn't fight?" Jaarin asked her brother as they stood watching the battle between the four Perfection Digimon and Chatsuramon.

"Because Marine Angemon isn't a fighter; he's a healing Digimon," Ruki responded. "We've never seen him even inflict injury on another Digimon. Heal it, yes. Cause it, no."

Takato looked at her and Jenrya. "Maybe we should Matrix evolve to Ultimate," he suggested. "It would make the battle go a lot quicker."

Jenrya shook his head. "I'd rather it not come to that," the bluenette said. "Chatsuramon might take advantage and go back to destroying Hypnos while we're evolving."

"Besides, they're really taking a beating," Ruki pointed out. "They might be too weak to Matrix evolve."

Takato sighed. "So what do we do? Just stand here and watch him maul our partners before causing the Hypnos building to collapse?" He received no answer.

Meanwhile Shiuchon and Lopmon were watching from a fair distance away, having been sent there by Jenrya after they refused to stay put inside. Lopmon looked up at her Tamer. "Shiuchon, it's time we joined the battle." The pig-tailed girl looked down at her partner, and nodded.

"Shuvoboshana!" Chatsuramon's attack caused the four Perfection Digimon attacking him to scatter to avoid being hit. Guardromon tried his missile attack, but the dog Deva swatted it away and back at the tank-like Digimon. Kenta and Hirokazu panicked, but some quick thinking and a large heart-shaped bubble blown by Marine Angemon saved them from being blown up.

Suddenly a cry of "Treasure Axe!" rent the air, followed by an ax-like limb crashing down onto the pavement beside Chatsuramon. Everyone looked up to see Antiramon, still airborne from the force of her jump.

The canine Deva growled. "So, the other traitor has decided to show her face!"

"Chatsuramon, stop this at once!" Antiramon commanded. "The feud between Zhuiqaomon-sama and the humans ended months ago. You are fighting a finished war!"

"Liar!" Chatsuramon roared, following up with an attack directed at Antiramon. It hit her a glancing blow as she landed, forcing her to stagger back. Antiramon shook out her arms, forcing them to revert from axes to hands once again. "Both you and Makuramon shall perish for your betrayal, and your precious humans with you! Treasure Mallet!" This time his attack was aimed straight at Antiramon, and she came under fire of numerous blows.

"Okay, it's official: this guy has completely gone off his nut!" Hirokazu shouted.

"Antiramon!" Shiuchon, Jaarin and Gazimon exclaimed as one. Gazimon gritted his teeth in anger. When he had been a Deva, he and Antiramon had been one of the best pairs of the entire group. They were nearly unbeatable; hardly any enemy they fought could touch them. _I've got to help them,_ he thought to himself. _I've got to help **her**. But how can I when I'm just a Child stage Digimon? Chatsuramon would slaughter me! But...I just can't abandon my teammates. What do I do?_ Suddenly a strange feeling filled his body, like he'd just been infused with power.

"Gazimon, evolve! Makuramon!"

"Treasure Ball!" A fast-moving blur dashed between Jenrya and Takato, zooming up into the air and hurling a fast-moving silver object down on Chatsuramon. It exploded as soon as it made contact with his snout, causing him to cry out in pain and frustration. Gazes shifted from the dog Deva to the sky to see who had managed to land the first decent blow on their enemy, and the sight elicited many gasps from the onlookers.

It was Makuramon, and he looked madder than hell.

Antiramon watched in surprise as Makuramon landed on her shoulder. "Let's show that mangy canine what happens when he messes with two 'traitors,' shall we...partner?"

The rabbit Deva smiled. "Yes, let's. Good to have you back, Makuramon."

"Good to be back, Antiramon," Makuramon agreed. "Two-on-one attack?"

"You got it." Makuramon leapt down from his perch on Antiramon's shoulder, doing a couple somersaults in the air just to be fancy. Once he landed solidly on his feet on the pavement, he turned to face Chatsuramon. Beside him Antiramon prepared to attack, as did he. "Raurava!"

"Ashipatoravana!" Antiramon chimed in. Both attacks struck Chatsuramon head-on. When the smoke cleared Chatsuramon looked a little worse for the wear, but now he was even angrier. He launched a powerful Shuvobushana at them, knocking down just about everyone who was still standing.

Rapidmon had managed to escape that fate, being able to fly and all. "Boy, what's it going to take to beat this guy?"

Antiramon looked up at him as she pulled herself up off the ground. "A miracle could work right now," she said half-sarcastically.

"Yeah, but where are we going to get a miracle at this time of day?" Makuramon joked.

"Fist of the Beast King!"

The surprise attack came out of nowhere, crashing into the left side of Chatsuramon's face. At first Takato thought that it was Beelzebumon, as he remembered that the Ultimate had used that attack to try to break Juri out of the D-Reaper's Kernal Sphere during that battle. But then another attack hit Chatsuramon from behind (literally in the behind too), recognizeable as Beelzebumon Blast Mode's Chaos Flare attack. "But if Beelzebumon is over there," Takato said slowly "then who..?"

"Lion King Sword!" A large sword sliced through the air near Chatsuramon, who edged away at the closeness of it. And it was being wielded by a familiar-looking, humanoid lion. Leomon. And standing a safe enough distance behind him, D-Arc in one hand, was Juri.

Chatsuramon growled at the new warrior that had entered the fray. "Another interloper. You shall die along with your human-loving friends and their pathetic humans!"

"You're gonna have to get through us first!" the voices of nine Digimon chorused. As one, all of the Digimon but Marine Angemon fired their strongest attacks on Chatsuramon. The sudden rush of destructive energy was too much for the dog Deva to handle, weakening him severely. Leomon raised his sword to finish him off, but Guardromon blocked his way.

"Not so fast, old friend," Guardromon said. "I believe yon victory goes to our simian compatriot." Leomon looked at him questioningly, then followed the mechanical Digimon's pointing arm.

Makuramon leaped into the air, anger at Chatsuramon and Zhuiqaomon giving him the extra energy he needed to get some good height on the jump. When he was high enough he pulled his throwing arm back. Sunlight glinted on the silver orb that he held in his hand before the ball began to glow with a fierce orange light. It was the attack he had tried to use on Antiramon in the Land of the Four Holy Beasts, and the one he had tried to use on the Tamers before Qinglongmon had done him what was perhaps the biggest favor anyone had ever done him.

Only this time, Makuramon was making damn sure he _didn't_ miss.

"Treasure...Ball!" The attack cry was punctuated with a grunt as Makuramon threw the glowing orb down. Chatsuramon, already weakened by the multiple attacks from the other Digimon, could only watch in fear as it bore down on him.

"Wait...no...please!" he shouted just as the Treasure Ball struck. He only had time for a short cry of pain before breaking into a cloud of data. As with the Hyougamon before, no one made a move to absorb Chatsuramon's data. It hung in the air a few moments before dissipating completely.

With the battle finally over, the Tamers and their Digimon mobbed Leomon as-one. Cheerful greetings and welcome back wishes mixed into incoherant babble that the humanoid lion 'mon smiled through. At least until he glanced up and saw Jaarin hovering at the edge of the circle...Makuramon standing beside her. Rage began to burn through him as he recalled how the simian Deva had ruthlessly snatched Culumon out of Juri's arms and made off with him to the Digital World. Growling, he drew his sword causing the children to move aside in surprise. Then with a roar he rushed the monkey Digimon.

"Makuramon, prepare to meet the same fate as your comrade!" he roared, sword held-high. To his surprise Juri, as well as the brown-haired girl that had been standing beside Makuramon, ran in front of him as if to shield the Deva from harm. Even more surprising was that Makuramon was doing nothing to defend himself or to flee; he just stood in place like he was waiting for Leomon to strike him down. "Juri?"

"Don't hurt him, Leomon, please," Juri begged. "He's not what he used to be. He's changed. He even has a Tamer now."

"A Tamer?" Leomon echoed.

The other Tamers nodded, and Jaarin stepped up to him. "Uh, I'm Lee Jaarin, Makuramon's Tamer. Nice to meet you, Leomon."

Leomon accepted the hand she offered him, covering it completely with his large one. "Likewise." Looking back at the other Tamers he asked, "_How_ did Makuramon get a Tamer?"

"Qinglongmon-sama," answered Rapidmon. "He stripped him of his Deva powers, devolving him to his Child stage of Gazimon, and then he became Jaarin's partner. He's actually a pretty cool guy once you get to know him."

"Ah, I see my little experiment worked out well after all," a voice boomed from above. Gazes redirected themselves upwards to see a rift in the sky, not unlike the one that had appeared when Zhuiqaomon had provided Makuramon with an escape portal after he had kidnapped Culumon. Only instead of glowing maroon from Zhuiqaomon's fire, it cast a cool blue light, and Qinglongmon's body was visible.

"Experiment?" Makuramon echoed, confused.

The dragon god nodded, or at least it seemed so. "The reason I left you in the real world at Child stage was to teach you some humility, as well as respect for humans. It was the Digi-Gnomes' idea, however, to make you partner to a Tamer. And they couldn't have chosen a better Tamer, either," he added, glancing at Jaarin. The Tamer in question blushed, suddenly embarrassed to have the attention of a god, even if it was a digital one, turned on her. "Not only have you filled my expectations, Makuramon, you have surpassed them. So therefore, I am offering you a choice."

"What kind of a choice?" questioned Taomon.

"I am giving him two options," Qinglongmon replied. "Makuramon, if you so choose you can come back to the Digital World, and you may keep your powers and status as a Deva, revoking your status as the partner to a Digimon Tamer. Or you may stay here, with Jaarin, remaining in your Child stage unless you need to evolve to fight in battle. It's your decision."

For Makuramon, there _was_ no decision. "Thank you for the offer, Qinglongmon-sama. It's very generous of you, really. But my home isn't in the Digital World anymore. It's here, with Jaarin and the other Tamers and their Digimon."

Qinglongmon nodded again. "Very well, if that is your decision. I wish you luck, Makuramon, and I congratulate all of you on your victory over Chatsuramon."

The Tamers and their partners chorused a thank you, after which Hirokazu added, "If you don't mind, Qinglongmon-sama, could you tell Zhiuqaomon to lay off now? I mean, I thought we got this settled the last time we were there." The other Tamers groaned, but Qinglongmon chuckled.

"I'll talk to him," he promised. "Farewell, Tamers. And good luck, Makuramon." With that the rift in the sky disappeared, sealing the Digital World off from the real world once again.

Gazimon grinned and hummed to himself as he fluffed the pillow on his bed, running over the events of the past few hours in his head. After the battle with Chatsuramon had finished and the evolved Digimon had reverted to their Child stages, the Tamers and their Digimon trooped back into the Hypnos building. After declaring that both Leomon and Impmon were perfectly safe after the data extraction and reformatting, the group got down to some serious business.

Namely, a party celebrating Leomon's return and the victory over Chatusramon.

It had been a wonderful party. Gazimon had been introduced to the other workers at Hypnos, especially Yamaki's fiancee Reika, as well as Dr. McCoy's granddaughter Alice. He found himself feeling a little sorry for her after finding out her connection to Dobermon. Juri had at least been able to get Leomon back after months of trying, but it was unlikely that Alice would see Dobermon again. Gazimon prayed that maybe someday something would happen to make that possible for her.

The party was also where Jaarin and Gazimon seemed to be fully accepted as members of the Tamers team. The event that stood out most in both their minds was Ruki giving Jaarin a deck of Digimon cards, a brand-new deck at that. She had offered to teach the game to Jaarin, since she would at least need to know what each card did in order to slash them. In fact, an impromptu game began right there at the party, with the final players turning out to be Ruki and Ryo. They were still playing by the time the party had come to a close, and had to settle for a tie.

When they got home for the party, Jaarin surprised her partner with something she'd been working on all week. She had fixed up a futon, blanket and pillow that were big enough just for him, and placed it near her bed so that he had a proper place to sleep. Before then he had slept at the end of her bed, curled up like a cat or a small dog, and before that he had slept on the floor. Truthfully, the futon was the first thing Gazimon could really call his own that he could remember. He liked that.

He looked up as Jaarin entered the room, just coming from the bathroom after having brushed her teeth. "You liked that?" she asked him, grinning. He nodded as she climbed into her own bed, drawing the covers over herself. The only light in the room came from the lamp on Jaarin's bedside table. "Gazimon? You...really meant what you said to Qinglongmon earlier, didn't you? About wanting to stay here?"

"Of course I meant it, Jaarin," Gazimon replied. "We've been through a lot this past week or so. I wouldn't trade any of that for anything in the Digital World, not even a return to the Land of the Four Holy Beasts and a promotion to Digi-God."

Jaarin grinned slyly. "Not even your first day at Taiyou Academy?"

Gazimon pretended to think about it for a little bit. "Well, _maybe_ that. In an extreme, extreme circumstance." The pair giggled before falling quiet. "Jaarin, I don't know if I ever told you this, but I'm very glad that you're my Tamer. I don't know what I would have done if someone else turned out to be my Tamer instead of you."

"We fit together, compliment each other," Jaarin commented. "Like Jenrya and Terriermon, and Shiuchon and Lopmon." She yawned, and reached out to turn off the lamp. The bedroom fell into shadows as the girl rolled over into a more comfortable position. "'Night, Gazimon. See you in the morning."

"Good night, Jaarin," Gazimon replied softly as he laid his head down on his own pillow. Looking up at the ceiling, his last thought before drifting off was, _Guess those Digi-Gnomes knew what they were doing after all._

Three hours later, while it was still dark out, Gazimon jolted out of a sound sleep. He took a quick visual surveillance of the bedroom then, satisfied that whatever had woken him up wasn't in the room, flung back his blanket and scrambled over to the window. The small commotion caused Jaarin to stir. "Gazimon?" she asked sleepily. "What's going on?"

"There's a digital field forming somewhere out in the city," he said. "I can sense it. It's not close, but it's not extremely far away either."

Jaarin sat up, rubbing her eyes. "Do you think anyone else sensed it?"

"Possibly, but whoever it is might need help depending on what comes out of it," Gazimon responded. Tamer and Digimon looked at each other, then at the D-Arc and deck of cards that lay on top of the nightstand.

Five minutes later Jaarin, fully-dressed, and Gazimon were racing down the street. Tamer and partner, off to do battle with whatever the Digital World thought best to throw at them.

Because that's what part of being a Tamer was about.

**The End**


End file.
